The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-06-24

hand organ manu- WILL 3. HAYS. e..
factory in the world gives it out clear and
cold that more of Hays songs have been set
to music in these instruments of street torture
than of any other half dozen composers This
is big load OF misery to charge up to one
man, but it is probably true. There are such
subtle, catchy charms about the simple melo-
dies of this writer that his music can be appre-
ciated by prima donna or Hottentot A
great traveller once told me that he had heard
Hays tunes oozing out of rickety old hand or
gans in such out of the way places as Cape
Town. Cairo, Bagdad, Constantinople, and
even i'll jerusalem!
! saw Hays yesterday. He was standing
street corner expostulating with an old
Il ''nian. who ,ail Lern uIlin rcifui.y club
l';:. !'i~ niuie. He is a LoPil philosopher, and
at TINE passed he was quoting passages
from Holy Writ, the riot act and snatches
from popular songs, to the astonishment of
the cruel fellow. Hays has not changed in
the least in personal appearance in the last
dozan years He is so years old, large, broad
ShuitI'iered. with the carriage of soldier and
the bearing of southern cavalier. His hair
is nearly SHOW white. bis face full and florid,
his big mustache black, and he is altogether
very handsome, well preserved man. A
dark slouch hat was pulled down over his
eyes, and his hands were showed deep into his
paltaloons pockets. For years he was the
river editor of The Courier Journal, and he
conducted a column that was indeed jour-
nalistic curiosity. 1t was strange mixture
svof river news, of goat, mother-in-law and
watermelon l:4n""+,,.n a"l -,a4hetic verses
and negro dialect stories. 1t is said that
Hays personally knew for a period of twenty
@>
New Orleans, from captains and owners down
to deck hands and roustabouts He was inn
mensely popular. and several boats were
named after him. One fine southern steamer
the Matte Belle Hays, was named in COM
pliment to his eldest daughter, who is now a
very beautiful woman, yeritable southern
belle. At present Mr.. Hays is editor of The
Weekly Commercial of Louisville, and man.
ages to grind out new song or two every
month. He is a man of family, with wife
and several beautiful children to whom he is
devotedly attached.
~
He was born on July 10, 1897 and his
father was wagonlnaker. Later on he was
a member of the old firm of Hays &c Cooper,
and was once well to do The war, bad luck
or something OF other broke him up il, busi-
ness long ago. Wills first verses were writ
ten on boards and shingles with pieces of
charcoal in his fathers wagon shop He was
a scapegraee and could never be kept at
school. Consequently he is man of little or
no education. except what he has picked up
in roughing it around the world He was
sent from home to several schools, hut in
varii.Liv ran away, and finally came back to
Louis, lille, where his path for many years
was an exceedingly thorny one. While away
from home, when 16 years old, he wrote his
first serious poem, all effusion, addressed to
beautiful girl with whom the young man was
deeply slnitten. .
ait was my first poem," said Hays in speak
inc of il, '"and it was matter of much con-
GER. :n me. sat it to The Louisville Times
and .he edia,r told me it would be printed
TlrrH / followed it up and hung around the |
office l,y day and watched it SOlicitously by |
night for three days. Then the poem APP
peared in print with my name TO it. / read |
it over and over again and again until my |
eyes ached and my head swan with ecstasy |
/ saw fame and fortune in those lines until |
the girls brother, who was older than /, met |
me ON the street and licked thunder out of |
me for writing the verses to his sister, To |
make it worse he told it about town that it
wasn't for writing them to his sister, but be-
cause the poetry was so bad"
This was the young writer's beginning; |
not very ailsl,icious, it is true, but it was /
starter, and lie soon forgot the pain of his
drubbng, and verses began rolling from his |
pen like smoke from a soft coal fed locomo-
tive. His first successful song was the long
ago famous "Evangeline," which won him
great reputation ar home and abroad. Other
songs that met with instant success were
Take This Letter to Mother" "Angels Meet
Me at de Gross Roads" ]" "Way Down Yonder
III lie Cormfiehls." "Shamus O'Brien, "Nora
O'NeiI." "Dfiyen from Home. !" "'lhe Little Old
Cabin in tile Lane" "Write Me a Letter from
Home" "The Wandering Refugee" and "Mol-
lie Darling. +" The last named proved the biggest
srI,tess of all, and over ,000, 900 copies of it
We're soi,i in a comparatively short time 1t
wits rapidly rpJnll,li>lled in France, England,
Germany. Holland and Australia A dozen
Years ago j. l.. Peters, the New York music
publisher, furnished Hays a statement that
IL i',a sold tlle following number of copies of
sns,-"f his song: ,siSl;Anus U Bren,n .2i1 315;
"Ms,ilie Darlin,. then just outl, go 00, Nora
ONeiI,n 3i6Gi4; Driven from Home" $780,
SSs'5. and Write Me Letter from Home"
i46. 100. AT that time this publisher alone
sEaled that he had sold 3,00U,OtU copies Of
Hays songs. 49,
The song writer tells an interesting story
about the ills, iration and production Of
''Eva..leline" He was on IA visit TO the home
of D. Mallory, the secession cor:g1s ssinan,
In ins}itll,ani county. XIV. There were a num-
heA u otssr. : ~ lie u" .irnse
a1 the same time, and fun ran pretty h.s.,
Olse night Hays escorted several nf the young
ladies to q hop at neighboring house, and
saw for the first time a steel engraving OF
Longfelows mournful heroine, s.Evange-
Ilile, : with clasped hands and tear bedimnled
eyes gazing out over the dark seas Hays
was so impressed with the picture that he
could think of nothing else and as he returned
nome he continued hunming the words of tile
first verse:
Lost Erangeline, my sweet Evangeline,
We have lived and loved each other fond and
true,
But how changed, alas, each well remembered
a scene
Since you and were sitting here.
was o lovely moonlight night, and the
Young ladies kept teasing their escort 10 sing
Ief them. As they walked along they came
% lot Of charred eznbers where slaves had